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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29687226">The Glass Menagerie</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Hypothesis/pseuds/The_Hypothesis'>The_Hypothesis</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who &amp; Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, But Wait There's Fanart, Crack, Crack Relationships, Crack Treated Seriously, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, I Made Myself Cry, I'm Going to Hell, I'm Sorry, Is This Even Smut?, Loneliness, M/M, Other, Touch-Starved, Unconditional Love, jar jar twinks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:48:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,093</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29687226</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Hypothesis/pseuds/The_Hypothesis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Where have you been, my friend?” He asked in the same cadence as eternity. “My home is practically filled with the tears I have shed from missing you.”</p><p>The Face of Boe gets a visit from the only other timeless entity that lives inside a glass world.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Face of Boe &amp; Tenth Doctor, The Face of Boe/Tenth Doctor's Hand</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Glass Menagerie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Did I pick quite possibly the worst pairing for a crack ship fic challenge? Yes.</p><p>Did I take half a year to finish this? Yes.</p><p>Did I shy away from writing a nightmare? Hell no.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>“<em>I didn't go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between two places.</em>”</p><p>
  <em>Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
It took approximately two and a half days for the team to realize the hand in the jar was missing… along with their boss.</p><p>When Jack returned, it took only two and a half minutes after getting his bearings to realize he didn’t have it anymore.</p><p>What he didn’t know at the time, was that it would take two and half million years for him to see it again.</p><p> </p><p>But time is a strange thing—and definitely not linear. So when a disembodied hand of a Time Lord found its way back within the T.A.R.D.I.S. from where it once came, it was only a matter of moments for the hand to happen upon its way into the eternity of the universe.</p><p>It would return as needed. Time knew that this was not where the story was supposed to end. But within the confines of its glowing jar and liquid, the floating appendage made a detour into the future because the fates knew long ago that a very old friend needed… <em> a hand. </em></p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>The Face of Boe woke to the sound of the vessel crashing into the exquisite marble floor of his suite. His ancient eyes slowly drifted open with no real urgency to the matter and focused through the liquid of his tank. No one was around and nothing that he could see was out of place. But the sound of glass breaking was not to be mistaken. He focused telepathically to call his servant.</p><p>"Sir, is everything okay? I heard a crash…" The young man said while bowing his head to the otherworldly sized face in front of him in a tank.</p><p>"Yes. See what it was that caused such a disturbance." He drew.</p><p>His servant looked around until finally gasping. "Here, behind you… it's some sort of tank that has broken." Boe could hear the sound of the man moving the broken pieces. "And wait… is this? My lord!" </p><p>"What is it?"</p><p>"Sir, it's a hand."</p><p>“A hand?”</p><p>“A human hand!” The young man clarified.</p><p>“Bring it here.” The Face of Boe politely demanded. But his servant hesitated.</p><p>“But… Do I have to touch it?” He stuttered and then remembered to whom he was talking. “Oh… right. Of course, sir. Here we are…” Picking the hand up made a very distinct squelching sound. </p><p>“Let me see the hand.” </p><p>His servant came into view, holding the hand as if presenting the label of a fine champagne to a dining table. The large eyes examined it for a moment before they came to a conclusion.</p><p>“It’s dying.”</p><p>“You mean, it’s not dead?” The servant asked with mild alarm. And as if on cue, one of the fingers twitched. “Oh lord, it moved!”</p><p>“Wonderful.” The Face hummed. “Please, give me the hand.”</p><p>“Um…”</p><p>“Place it in my tank.”</p><p>“Um… Yes, sir.” Unsure of himself, the servant finally figured out how to access the top of the tank. With a gentle plop, the hand entered the tank of the Face of Boe.</p><p>“Now leave us. Have the vessel repaired.”</p><p>“Yes, sir.” The servant quickly picked up the remnants of the vessel for the hand and hurried off. The door locked behind him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Old friend…”</p><p>The hand drifted down through the water like a leaf falling on an autumn day. The big face sighed as he recalled what autumn even meant. The smell of crisp air… spices and sweets… <em> Cardiff in the rain with a blue box stationed on the Plass </em>… His eyes opened just as the hand landed on the base of the tank.</p><p>The fingers extended before clutching in on itself. It was as if even the hand could not contain the rise and fall of emotions that come with finding someone you thought you knew in your heart was lost. Then it reached out again. It reached and tried to pull closer to Boe. </p><p>Slowly, one of the extremities from the back of Boe’s head that normally rested on the bottom of the tank, shifted forward to the hand. Finally, they gently touched each other. A hum resonated from the tank. It quite possibly was just the Face of Boe humming to himself, but perhaps it was his heart singing with a song no one had heard in a million years.</p><p>“Doctor… it is you, is it not?”</p><p>The hand gripped tightly to confirm.</p><p>“Where have you been, my friend?” Boe asked in the same cadence as eternity. “My home is practically filled with the tears I have shed from missing you.”</p><p>They both knew the answer, though. While Boe aged forever with only his memories and thoughts as company, the Doctor sprinted through time as if the millennia of years he lived would never be enough. He burned through the company he kept like stars at the edge of the universe burned into oblivion. He saved the day with every adventure he went on as if just one more day was all that mattered in the end. It was a mantra that was cursed to follow him no matter how many times he changed his face. </p><p>
  <em>One more day… </em>
</p><p>
  <em>One more day…</em>
</p><p>And here he was, with his oldest friend. With the only gift he knew how to give…</p><p>One more day.</p><p> </p><p>A peculiar thing happens to those who have come to know Boe… to<em> feel</em> Boe. The ancient being emanated with the force of life, and knowing Boe meant to be healed by Boe. It meant to be loved by Boe in one of the myriad of ways he knew to love. So a disembodied hand that was on the shadowed path to death mere moments ago, suddenly found itself once again filled with life; filled with life from his friend. They were the light to each other's dark, the night to each other’s day. And here they both were now. Once destined to only know life within the confines of glass alone, they now had one more day—together.</p><p>With a renewed vigor, the hand held onto the spherical appendage it was first offered. However, it wasn’t enough. It knew that for his friend, the shy touch was never going to be enough. It reached towards the face so close to him and the offer was understood. Boe raised the sphere to his cheek. </p><p>His eyes closed as the hand caressed his face. Both knew how sacred this touch was to the entity who was only ever rivaled by God himself. A wave in the water moved over the hand. His friend had shed a tear. How many waves in the oceans of far away worlds were the sadness of the Face of Boe?</p><p>The face leaned into the hand as much as his restrictions would allow. Of all the illness and evil in the universe, he had died more times than all of them together from loneliness. He was a man so far starved from the touch of another that the slow caress was almost too much. He raised the hand to his eyes and let his friend console his tears. One by one, the heartache was wiped away.</p><p> </p><p>Without any further hesitation, he did what he had only dreamed about for uncountable years.</p><p> </p><p>He lowered the hand to his lips and kissed the skin of the Doctor—the Doctor who knew how to fix everything, except his broken heart. He did not even need to keep his eyes closed to see the memory of the last time he had kissed his friend. So much came rushing back to him—the rough skin of the Doctor’s lips, the smell of a leather jacket, the warmth of another man.</p><p>All pretenses of remaining the figure of a deity among men were abandoned. It was in this moment that he was human once again. His mouth fell open as he continued to kiss what small amount of his friend he was given. The hand moved with encouragement, allowing Boe to lose himself in his senses of touching and tasting. </p><p><em>Pressure </em>, he thought. He yearned for pressure in whatever way he could get it. Whether it was from a hard touch or from the tell tale build from within that ebbed and flowed with the blood now racing through his veins. And as if the hand could read his mind, it clawed its fingers as deep as it could as the Face of Boe dragged it down one side of his face, and then the other. He repeated the action again and again as if finally getting to scratch an itch he felt for centuries. </p><p>And like a man possessed, the hand suddenly found itself being lifted and thrust into the appendages that formed the crown around the back of the age old head. It was part of himself he kept facing the back surface of his glass vessel for he knew what it looked like to most others. It was not beautiful. Not much about him felt beautiful anymore, but he knew most considered the backside of him to be some sort of mythical horror. But for one blessed moment he was lost in the feeling of someone touching him without a care in the world. The kind of touch that only comes from an unconditional love that very few are lucky enough to know in their lifetime. </p><p>As much as the touch was craved, there was nothing rushed about it. This was a moment between two men who knew no boundaries of time. The doctor could hold him for the rest of eternity. </p><p>Perhaps he did. </p><p> </p><p>The hand combed through the other worldly hair that tried to wrap around it. Touching parts of his friend that no one had ever touched before. And soon enough, the shallow gasps of Boe evolved into a song far more magnificent than any other sound ever heard. With several final strokes, Boe closed his eyes and found the peace for which he had been after for so long.</p><p>Once again, he brought the hand to his lips and pressed a chaste kiss to the fingers.</p><p>“Thank you, my friend.” He whispered.</p><p>The hand brushed his lip with a touch so soft that it could only mean one thing. Their time together would be coming to an end soon. </p><p> </p><p>As if on cue, there was a curt knock on the chamber door of the suite. </p><p>“Enter.” The Face of Boe commanded.</p><p>“Sir, the vessel has been repaired.” His servant said as he walked in holding the foreign container. And so it had been. “Also, you have a visitor.”</p><p>The giant face looked past his servant to the door.</p><p>“Who?” He asked.</p><p>“Precisely.” Came a voice from the hall before none other than the Doctor himself stepped slowly into the room. </p><p>“I’ll give you some privacy.” The servant said. Before he could leave, the Doctor took the container from him.</p><p>“Don’t worry, I’ll get this sorted for you.” He said with a wink and the servant quickly left.</p><p> </p><p>Closing the distance between them, the Doctor took a knee in front of the massive glass jar.</p><p>“Hello, old friend.” He said to the Face.</p><p>"We meet again, Doctor.” He said in return with his usual meter.</p><p>“I believe you have something of mine.” The Doctor smiled, if not with a bit of sadness.</p><p>“I believe I do.” Another appendage with a sphere on its end lifted the hand to the top of the tank.</p><p>“Don’t worry. As you know, you’ll be needing this soon in your own timeline. I have no idea how it ended up here, but thank you for taking care of it for me… for you.” The Doctor took the hand as it was offered to him and secured it back in the container where it seemed to enjoy the bubbles once more.</p><p>“Well, I believe it came to take care of me instead.” The Face replied.</p><p>The doctor raised an eyebrow. “What— nevermind. I don’t want to know.”</p><p>A warm laugh echoed through the room.</p><p>“Thank you, my friend.” The Face of Boe continued. “Will you come back to me again?”</p><p>“I will. I know for a fact that I will.” The Doctor promised.</p><p>“I will miss you, my friend.”</p><p>“Well, as the wisest person I have ever known once told me,” The Doctor said as he placed his hand on the glass that once again separated them, “You are not alone.”</p><p><br/>
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</p><p>The End.</p><p><br/>
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</p><p> </p><p>
  
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Fanart graciously by the one and only <a href="https://twitter.com/doctorwhat420">@DoctorWhat420</a></p><p>This fic is dedicated to Teaboy83</p></blockquote></div></div>
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